UE indicated timing relation for UL transmission

ABSTRACT

Some communication systems enable a user equipment (UE) to have different timelines depending on a category of the UE. One goal of the present method and apparatus is to improve channel utilization by reducing uplink transmission delays (or latency) for a UE in the unlicensed spectrum by not having to rely on a base station to have access to the wireless medium in order to assign a grant to the UE. The UE can transmit on an autonomous uplink (AUL) without having received an uplink grant. When a UE sends AUL traffic during a UE indicated timeline, the base station can indicate a reduced uplink physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) processing timeline to the UE. The base station may further configure downlink feedback information (DFI) or downlink control information (DCI) monitoring opportunities for the UE. The UE may indicate the preferred AUL processing timeline.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY UNDER 35 U.S.C. § 119

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/625,708, entitled “UE INDICATED TIMING RELATION FOR UL TRANSMISSION”and filed on Feb. 2, 2018, the entire content of which is herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND Field

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to unlicensed,wireless communications, and more specifically to autonomous uplinkcommunications.

Background

Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide varioustypes of communication content such as voice, video, packet data,messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable ofsupporting communication with multiple users by sharing the availablesystem resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of suchmultiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA)systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequencydivision multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequencydivision multiple access (OFDMA) systems. A wireless multiple-accesscommunications system may include a number of base stations, eachsimultaneously supporting communication for multiple communicationdevices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).

SUMMARY

A method, and apparatus for indicating a flexible timeline for an uplink(UL) transmission by a user equipment (UE) is described. The UE mayreceive a feedback monitoring opportunity configuration that identifiesa set of uplink processing timelines. The UE may transmit an indicationof a first uplink processing timeline of the set of uplink processingtimelines. The UE may transmit an uplink transmission to a base stationand may monitor for feedback from the base station associated with theuplink transmission based at least in part on the indicated first uplinkprocessing timeline.

In one aspect, the uplink transmission is an autonomous uplink (AUL)transmission or a scheduled uplink (SUL) transmission.

In another aspect, the feedback monitoring opportunity configuration isreceived in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message or in an AULtransmission activation command. In another aspect, the first uplinkprocessing timeline is transmitted in the Uplink Control Information(UCI) or in the scheduling request.

In still another aspect, the UE may receive the feedback in downlinkfeedback information (DFI) or downlink control information (DCI) basedat least in part on the monitoring.

In still another aspect, the UE monitors for the feedback during aDiscontinuous Reception (DRX) ON cycle, after a first hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARD) process of the uplink transmission, or after alast HARQ process of the uplink transmission.

In another aspect, the set of uplink processing timelines comprises:waking up, by the UE, at a next Discontinuous Reception (DRX) ONduration to monitor for the feedback; waking up, by the UE, at aconfigured period to monitor for the feedback; monitoring, by the UE,for the feedback after a processing time of a first HARQ process iscomplete; or monitoring, by the UE, for an AUL downlink feedbackinformation (DFI) that includes at least one acknowledge (ACK)/negativeacknowledge (NACK) for a plurality of physical uplink shared channel(PUSCH) HARQ process.

In still another aspect, monitoring for the feedback further comprisesmonitoring, by the UE, for the feedback based at least in part a minimumPUSCH processing timeline. The minimum PUSCH processing timeline may bepredefined, or may be received during an autonomous uplink activation orin an RRC message from the base station.

In another aspect, the method further comprises the first uplinkprocessing timeline based at least in part on a delay sensitivity of theuplink transmission.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system, inaccordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logical architectureof a distributed radio access network (RAN), in accordance with certainaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary physical architecture of adistributed RAN, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating a design of anexemplary base station (BS) and UE, in accordance with certain aspectsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating an exemplary downlink (DL)-centricsubframe according to some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary uplink (UL)-centricsubframe according to some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a method for autonomous UL transmission in unlicensedspectrum, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 discloses timing relation definitions for HARQ operations in NR,in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart which illustrates a method of a UE for sending AULtraffic during a UE indicated timeline, in accordance with certainaspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates three exemplary AUL timelines that may be selected bya UE, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method supporting timeline selection forfeedback monitoring opportunities, in accordance with certain aspects ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates certain components that may be included within abase station supporting timeline selection for feedback monitoringopportunities, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 12 illustrates certain components that may be included within awireless communication device supporting timeline selection for feedbackmonitoring opportunities, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With 5G NR, subcarrier spacing may be scaled. Also, the waveformsselected for 5G include cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiplexing (CP-OFDM) and DFT-Spread (DFT-s) OFDM. In addition, 5Gallows for switching between both CP-OFDM and DFT-S-OFDM on the uplinkto get the spatial multiplexing benefit of CP-OFDM and the link budgetbenefit of DFT-S OFDM. With Long Term Evolution (LTE), orthogonalfrequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) communications signals may beused for downlink communications, while Single-CarrierFrequency-Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communications signals maybe used for LTE uplink communications. The DFT-s-OFDMA scheme spreads aplurality of data symbols (i.e., a data symbol sequence) over afrequency domain. Also, in comparison to the OFDMA scheme, the SC-FDMAor DFT-s-OFDMA schemes can greatly reduce a peak to average power ratio(PAPR) of a transmission signal. The terms DFT-s-OFDMA and SC-FDMA maybe used interchangeably, in some cases.

Scalable OFDM multi-tone numerology is another feature of 5G. Priorversions of LTE supported a mostly fixed OFDM numerology of 15 kHzspacing between OFDM tones (often called subcarriers) and carrierbandwidths up to 20 MHz. Scalable OFDM numerology has been introduced in5G to support diverse spectrum bands/types and deployment models. Forexample, 5G NR is able to operate in mmWave bands that have widerchannel widths (e.g., 100s of MHz) than currently used in LTE. Also, theOFDM subcarrier spacing is able to scale with the channel width, so theFast Fourier Transform (FFT) size scales such that processing complexitydoes not increase unnecessarily for wider bandwidths. In the presentapplication, numerology refers to the different values that differentfeatures of a communication system can take, such as subcarrier spacing,cyclic prefix, symbol length, FFT size, TTI, etc.

Also in LTE and 5G NR, cellular technologies have been expanded into theunlicensed spectrum, which may provide added capacity. A first member ofthis technology family is referred to as LTE Unlicensed or LTE-U. Byaggregating LTE in an unlicensed spectrum with an ‘anchor’ channel in alicensed spectrum, faster downloads are enabled. Also, LTE-U shares theunlicensed spectrum fairly with Wi-Fi. This is an advantage because inthe 5 GHz unlicensed band where Wi-Fi devices are widely used, it isdesirable for LTE-U to coexist with Wi-Fi. However, an LTE-U network maycause Radio Frequency (RF) interference to an existing co-channel Wi-Fidevice. Choosing a preferred operating channel and reducing interferencecaused to nearby Wi-Fi networks is a goal for LTE-U devices. However,the LTE-U single carrier (SC) device may operate on the same channel asWi-Fi if all available channels are occupied by Wi-Fi devices. Tocoordinate spectrum access between LTE-U and Wi-Fi, the energy acrossthe intended transmission band is first detected. This energy detection(ED) mechanism informs the device of ongoing transmissions by othernodes. Based on this ED information, a device decides if it shouldtransmit. A Wi-Fi device may not back off to LTE-U unless itsinterference level is above an energy detection threshold (−62decibel-milliwatts (dBm) over 20 megahertz (MHz)). Thus, without propercoexistence mechanisms in place, LTE-U transmissions could causeconsiderable interference on a Wi-Fi network relative to Wi-Fitransmissions. In 5G NR, unlicensed spectrum may be used in bothstand-alone and licensed-assisted (LAA) schemes. LAA is another memberof the unlicensed technology family and like LTE-U, it also uses ananchor channel in licensed spectrum. However, it also adds “listenbefore talk” (LBT) to the LTE functionality. In addition, carriers forLTE or 5G NR may occupy frequencies up to 60 gigahertz (GHz), also knownas mmWave.

A gating interval may be used to gain access to a channel of a sharedspectrum. The gating interval may determine the application of acontention-based protocol such as an LBT protocol. The gating intervalmay indicate when a Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) is performed. Whethera channel of the shared unlicensed spectrum is available or in use isdetermined by the CCA. If the channel is “clear” for use, i.e.,available, the gating interval may allow the transmitting apparatus touse the channel. Access to the channel is typically for a predefinedtransmission interval. Thus, with unlicensed spectrum, a “listen beforetalk” procedure is performed before transmitting a message. If thechannel is not cleared for use, then a device will not transmit.

Another member of this family of unlicensed technologies is LIE-WirelessLocal Area Network (WLAN) Aggregation (WA), which utilizes both LIE andWi-Fi. Accounting for channel conditions for both LIE and Wi-Fi, LWA cansplit a single data flow into two data flows which allows both the LIEand the Wi-Fi channel to be used for an application. Instead ofcompeting with Wi-Fi, the LIE signal is using the WLAN connectionsseamlessly to increase capacity.

Another member of this family of unlicensed technologies is MulteFire.MulteFire opens up new opportunities by operating 4G LIE technologysolely in unlicensed spectrum such as the global 5 GHz band, UnlikeLTE-U and LAA, MulteFire allows entities without any access to licensedspectrum to use LIE or 5G NR technologies. Thus, it operates inunlicensed spectrum on a standalone basis, that is, without any anchorchannel in the licensed spectrum. Thus, LTE-U, LAA, and LWA differ fromMulteFire because they aggregate unlicensed spectrum with an anchor inlicensed spectrum. Without relying on licensed spectrum as the anchoringservice, MulteFire allows for Wi-Fi like deployments. A MulteFirenetwork may include access points (APs) and/or base stations 110communicating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, e.g.,without a licensed anchor carrier.

A discovery reference signal (DRS) Measurement Timing Configuration(DMTC) is a technique that allows MulteFire to transmit but with minimalinterference to other unlicensed technology including Wi-Fi.Additionally, the periodicity of discovery signals is very sparse. Thisallows MulteFire to occasionally access channels, transmit discovery andcontrol signals, and then vacate the channels. Since the unlicensedspectrum is shared with other radios of similar or dissimilar wirelesstechnologies, LBT techniques may be applied for channel sensing. LBTinvolves sensing the medium for a pre-defined minimum amount of time andbacking off if the channel is busy. Therefore, the initial random access(RA) procedure for standalone LTE-U should involve as few transmissionsas possible and also have low latency, such that the number of LBToperations can be minimized and the RA procedure can then be completedas quickly as possible.

Leveraging a DMTC window, MulteFire algorithms search and decodereference signals in an unlicensed band from neighboring base stationsin order to know which base station would be best for serving the user.As the caller moves past one base station, their UE sends a measurementreport to it, triggering a handover at the right moment, andtransferring the caller (and all of their content and information) tothe next base station.

Since LTE traditionally operated in licensed spectrum and Wi-Fi operatedin unlicensed bands, coexistence with Wi-Fi or other unlicensedtechnology was not considered when LTE was designed. In moving to theunlicensed world, the LTE waveform was modified and algorithms wereadded in order to perform LBT. This allows unlicensed incumbents,including Wi-Fi, to have less interference because a device followingLBT will not just acquire a channel and immediately transmit. Thepresent example supports LBT and the detection and transmission of aWi-Fi Channel Usage Beacon Signal (WCUBS) for ensuring coexistence withWi-Fi neighbors.

MulteFire was designed to “hear” transmissions for a neighboring Wi-Fidevice. MulteFire listens first, and autonomously makes the decision totransfer when there is no other neighboring Wi-Fi transmitting on thesame channel. This technique ensures co-existence between MulteFire andWi-Fi.

Additionally, techniques and devices described herein may adhere to theunlicensed rules and regulations set by 3GPP and the EuropeanTelecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which mandates the −72dBm LBT detection threshold. This further helps devices reduce conflictwith Wi-Fi. MulteFire's LBT design may be identical to the standardsdefined in 3GPP for LAA/eLAA and may comply with ETSI rules.

An expanded functionality for 5G involves the use of 5G NR SpectrumSharing, or NR-SS. 5G spectrum sharing enables enhancement, expansion,and upgrade of the spectrum sharing technologies introduced in LTE.These include LTE Wi-Fi Aggregation (LWA), License Assisted Access(LAA), enhanced License Assisted Access (eLAA), and Citizen's BroadbandRadio Service (CBRS)/License Shared Access (LSA).

Aspects of the disclosure are initially described in the context of awireless communication system. Aspects of the disclosure are thenillustrated by and described with reference to apparatus diagrams,system diagrams, and flowcharts that relate to receiving on transmit andtransmitting on receive.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system 100, suchas a new radio (NR) or 5G network, in which aspects of the presentdisclosure may be performed.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the wireless communication system 100 mayinclude a number of base stations (BSs) 110 and other network entities.ABS 110 may be a station that communicates with UEs 120. Each BS 110 mayprovide communication coverage for a particular geographic coverage area102. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a geographic coverage area102 of a BS and/or a BS subsystem serving this coverage area, dependingon the context in which the term is used. In NR systems, the term “cell”and the terms Node B (NB), enhanced NB (eNB), 5G NB, AP, NR BS, NR BS,5G Radio NodeB (gNB), or transmission reception point (TRP) may beinterchangeable. In some aspects, a cell may not necessarily bestationary, and the geographic area 102 of the cell may move accordingto the location of a mobile BS 110. In some aspects, the BSs 110 may beinterconnected to one another and/or to one or more other BSs 110 ornetwork nodes in the wireless communication system 100 through varioustypes of backhaul interfaces such as a direct physical connection, avirtual network, or the like using any suitable transport network.

In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a givengeographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular radioaccess technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. ARAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface,etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a frequencychannel, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a givengeographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networksof different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployed.

A BS 110 may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a picocell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cell. A macro cell may cover arelatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius)and may allow unrestricted access by UEs 120 with service subscriptions.A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allowunrestricted access by UEs 120 with service subscriptions. A femto cellmay cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and mayallow restricted access by UEs 120 having association with the femtocell (e.g., UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), UEs for users in thehome, etc.). ABS 110 for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS110. A BS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for afemto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the exampleshown in FIG. 1, the BSs 110 a, 110 b, and 110 c may be macro BSs forthe macro cells 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c, respectively. The BS 110 x maybe a pico BS for a pico cell 102 x. The BSs 110 y and 110 z may be femtoBS for the femto cells 102 y and 102 z, respectively. A BS may supportone or multiple (e.g., three) cells.

The wireless communication system 100 may also include relay stations. Arelay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay, etc. Arelay station is a station that receives a transmission of data and/orother information from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) andsends a transmission of the data and/or other information to adownstream station (e.g., a UE or a BS). A relay station may also be aUE 120 that relays transmissions for other UEs 120. In the example shownin FIG. 1, a relay station 110 r may communicate with the BS 110 a and aUE 120 r in order to facilitate communication between the BS 110 a andthe UE 120 r.

The wireless communication system 100 may be a heterogeneous networkthat includes BSs 110 of different types, e.g., macro BS, pico BS, femtoBS, relays, etc. These different types of BSs may have differenttransmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impactson interference in the wireless communication system 100. For example,macro BS may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 20 Watts) whereaspico BS, femto BS, and relays may have a lower transmit power level(e.g., 1 Watt).

The wireless communication system 100 may support synchronous orasynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the BSs 110 may havesimilar frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs 110 may beapproximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the BSs 110may have different frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs110 may not be aligned in time. The techniques described herein may beused for both synchronous and asynchronous operation.

A network controller 130 may be coupled to a set of BSs 110 and providecoordination and control for these BSs 110. The network controller 130may communicate with the BSs 110 via a backhaul. The BSs 110 may alsocommunicate with one another, e.g., directly or indirectly via wirelessor wireline backhaul.

The UEs 120 (e.g., 120 a, 120 b, 120 x, 120 y, etc.) may be dispersedthroughout the wireless communication system 100, and each UE may bestationary or mobile. A UE 120 may also be referred to as a mobilestation, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, aCustomer Premises Equipment (CPE), a cellular phone, a smart phone, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wirelesscommunication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordlessphone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet, a camera, a gamingdevice, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device ormedical equipment, a healthcare device, a biometric sensor/device, awearable device such as a smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses,virtual reality goggles, a smart wrist band, smart jewelry (e.g., asmart ring, a smart bracelet, etc.), an entertainment device (e.g., amusic device, a video device, a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicularcomponent or sensor, a smart meter/sensor, a robot, a drone, industrialmanufacturing equipment, a positioning device (e.g., GPS, Beidou,terrestrial, etc.), or any other suitable device that is configured tocommunicate via a wireless or wired medium.

Some UEs 120 may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) devicesor evolved MTC (eMTC) devices, which may include remote devices that maycommunicate with a base station 110, another remote device, or someother entity. MTC may refer to communication involving at least oneremote device on at least one end of the communication and may includeforms of data communication which involve one or more entities that donot necessarily need human interaction. MTC UEs 120 may be capable ofMTC communications with MTC servers and/or other MTC devices through aPublic Land Mobile Network (PLMN), for example. MTC and eMTC UEs 120include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters,monitors, cameras, location tags, etc., that may communicate with a BS110, another device (e.g., remote device), or some other entity. Awireless node may provide, for example, connectivity for or to a network(e.g., a wide area network such as Internet or a cellular network) via awired or wireless communication link. MTC UEs 120, as well as other UEs120, may be implemented as Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, e.g.,narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices. In NB IoT, the uplink and downlink mayhave higher periodicities and repetition interval values as a UE 120decodes data in extended coverage.

In FIG. 1, a solid line with double arrows indicates desiredtransmissions between a UE 120 and a serving BS 110, which is a BS 110designated to serve the UE 120 on the downlink and/or uplink. A dashedline with double arrows indicates interfering transmissions between a UE120 and a BS 110.

Certain wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrierfrequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDMpartition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers,which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarriermay be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent inthe frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. Thespacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total numberof subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. Forexample, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kHz and the minimumresource allocation (called a ‘resource block’) may be 12 subcarriers(or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal FFT size may be equal to 128,256, 512, 1024, or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth may also bepartitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz(e.g., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbandsfor system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.

While aspects of the examples described herein may be associated withLTE technologies, aspects of the present disclosure may be applicablewith other wireless communications systems, such as NR. NR may utilizeOFDM with a CP or DFT-S-OFDM on the uplink and downlink and includesupport for half-duplex operation using time division duplex (TDD). Acarrier may be referred to as a component carrier (CC), and CCbandwidths up to or greater than 100 MHz may be supported. NR resourceblocks may span 12 sub-carriers with a sub-carrier bandwidth of 75 kHzover a 0.1 ms duration. Each radio frame may consist of 50 subframeswith a length of 10 ms. Consequently, each subframe may have a length of0.2 ms. Each subframe may indicate a link direction (e.g., downlink (DL)or uplink (UL)) for data transmission and the link direction for eachsubframe may be dynamically switched. Each subframe may include DL/ULdata as well as DL/UL control data. UL and DL subframes for NR may be asdescribed in more detail below with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7.Beamforming may be supported and beam direction may be dynamicallyconfigured. MIMO transmissions with precoding may also be supported.MIMO configurations in the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas withup to 8 streams of multi-layer DL transmissions and up to 2 streams perUE 120. Multi-layer transmissions with up to 2 streams per UE 120 may besupported. Aggregation of multiple cells may be supported with up to 8serving cells. Alternatively, NR may support a different air interface,other than an OFDM-based air interface. NR networks may include entitiessuch as central units (CUs) and/or distributed units (DUs).

In some aspects, access to the air interface may be scheduled, wherein ascheduling entity (e.g., a BS 110) allocates resources for communicationamong some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell.Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below, thescheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning,reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinateentities. That is, for scheduled communication, subordinate entitiesutilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity. BSs 110 are notthe sole entities that may function as a scheduling entity. That is, insome aspects, a UE 120 may function as a scheduling entity and mayschedule resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one ormore other UEs 120). In this example, the UE 120 is functioning as ascheduling entity, and other UEs utilize resources scheduled by the UE120 for wireless communication. A UE 120 may function as a schedulingentity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, and/or in a mesh network. In amesh network example, UEs 120 may optionally communicate directly withone another in addition to communicating with the scheduling entity.

Thus, in a wireless communication network with a scheduled access totime-frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2Pconfiguration, and a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one ormore subordinate entities may communicate utilizing the scheduledresources.

As noted above, a RAN may include a CU and one or more DUs. A NR BS(e.g., eNB, 5G Node B, Node B, TRP, AP, or gNB) may correspond to one ormultiple BSs 110. NR cells can be configured as access cell (ACells) ordata only cells (DCells). For example, the RAN (e.g., a central unit ordistributed unit) can configure the cells. DCells may be cells used forcarrier aggregation or dual connectivity, but not used for initialaccess, cell selection/reselection, or handover. DCells may or may nottransmit synchronization signals (SS). NR BSs 110 may transmit downlinksignals to UEs 120 indicating the cell type. Based on the cell typeindication, the UE 120 may communicate with the NR BS 110. For example,the UE 120 may determine NR BSs 110 to consider for cell selection,access, handover, and/or measurement based on the indicated cell type.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary logical architecture of a distributedradio access network (RAN) 200, which may be implemented in the wirelesscommunication system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. A 5G access node 206 mayinclude an access node controller (ANC) 202. The ANC 202 may be a CU ofthe distributed RAN 200. The backhaul interface to a next generationcore network (NG-CN) 204 may terminate at the ANC 202. The backhaulinterface to neighboring next generation access nodes (NG-ANs 210) mayterminate at the ANC 202. The ANC 202 may include one or more TRPs 208(which may also be referred to as BSs, NR BSs, Node Bs, 5G NBs, APs,eNB, gNB, or some other term). As described above, a TRP 208 may be usedinterchangeably with “cell.”

One or more of the TRPs 208 may be a DU. The TRPs 208 may be connectedto one ANC 202 or more than one ANC 202. For example, for RAN sharing,radio as a service (RaaS), and service specific AND deployments, the TRP208 may be connected to more than one ANC. A TRP 208 may include one ormore antenna ports. The TRPs 208 may be configured to individually(e.g., dynamic selection) or jointly (e.g., joint transmission) servetraffic to a UE.

The RAN 200 may be used to illustrate a fronthaul definition. Thearchitecture may be defined to support fronthauling solutions acrossdifferent deployment types. For example, the architecture may be basedon transmit network capabilities (e.g., bandwidth, latency, and/orjitter).

The architecture may share features and/or components with LTE.According to techniques described herein, the next generation AN (NG-AN)210 may support dual connectivity with NR. The NG-AN 210 may share acommon fronthaul for LTE and NR.

The architecture may enable cooperation between and among the TRPs 208.For example, cooperation may be preset within a TRP 208 and/or acrossthe TRPs 208 via the ANC 202. According to some examples, no inter-TRPinterface may be needed or present.

According to aspects, a dynamic configuration of split logical functionsmay be present within the RAN 200. A Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer,a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a Radio Link Control(RLC) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY)layer may be adaptably placed at the DU or CU (e.g., TRP or ANC,respectively). According to certain aspects, a BS may include a CU(e.g., ANC 202) and/or one or more distributed units (e.g., one or moreTRPs 208).

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary physical architecture of a distributedRAN 300, according to aspects of the present disclosure. A centralizedcore network unit (C-CU) 302 may host core network functions. The C-CU302 may be centrally deployed. Functionality of the C-CU 302 may beoffloaded (e.g., to advanced wireless services (AWS)), in an effort tohandle peak capacity.

A centralized RAN unit (C-RU) 304 may host one or more ANC functions.Optionally, the C-RU 304 may host core network functions locally. TheC-RU 304 may have distributed deployment. The C-RU 304 may be closer tothe network edge.

A DU 306 may host one or more TRPs (e.g., edge node (EN), an edge unit(EU), a radio head (RH), a smart radio head (SRH), or the like). The DU306 may be located at edges of the network with RF functionality.

FIG. 4 illustrates exemplary components of a BS 110 and a UE 120illustrated in FIG. 1, which may be used to implement aspects of thepresent disclosure. In the example of FIG. 4, the BS 110 may be themacro BS 110 c in FIG. 1, and the UE 120 may be the UE 120 y. The BS 110may also be a base station of some other type. The BS 110 may beequipped with antennas 434 a through 434 t, and the UE 120 may beequipped with antennas 452 a through 452 r. As described above, the BS110 may include a TRP. One or more components of the BS 110 and UE 120may be used to practice aspects of the present disclosure. For example,antennas 452 a through 452 r, processors 466, 458, 464, and/orcontroller/processor 480 of the UE 120. Antennas 434, processors 430,420, 438, and/or controller/processor 440 of the BS 110 may be used toperform the operations described herein.

At the base station 110, a transmit processor 420 may receive data froma data source 412 and control information from a controller/processor440. The control information may be for the Physical Broadcast Channel(PBCH), Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), PhysicalHybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH), Physical Downlink Control Channel(PDCCH), etc. The data from the data source 412 may be for the PhysicalDownlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), etc. The processor 420 may process(e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and control information to obtaindata symbols and control symbols, respectively. The processor 420 mayalso generate reference symbols, e.g., for the primary synchronizationsignal (PSS), the secondary synchronization signal (SSS), andcell-specific reference signal. A transmit (TX) multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) processor 430 may perform spatial processing(e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, and/or thereference symbols, if applicable, and may provide output symbol streamsto the modulators (MODs) 432 a through 432 t. For example, the TX MIMOprocessor 430 may perform certain aspects described herein for referencesignal (RS) multiplexing. Each modulator 432 may process a respectiveoutput symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output samplestream. Each modulator 432 may further process (e.g., convert to analog,amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain adownlink signal. Downlink signals from modulators 432 a through 432 tmay be transmitted via the antennas 434 a through 434 t, respectively.

At the UE 120, the antennas 452 a through 452 r may receive the downlinksignals from the base station 110 and may provide received signals tothe demodulators (DEMODs) 454 a through 454 r, respectively. Eachdemodulator 454 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert,digitize, etc.) a respective received signal to obtain input samples.Each demodulator 454 may further process the input samples (e.g., forOFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 456 may obtainreceived symbols from all the demodulators 454 a through 454 r, performMIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and providedetected symbols. For example, the MIMO detector 456 may providedetected RS transmitted using techniques described herein. A receiveprocessor 458 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode)the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 120 to a data sink460, and provide decoded control information to the controller/processor480. According to one or more cases, some aspects can include providingthe antennas 452, as well as some Tx/Rx functionalities, such that theyreside in distributed units. For example, some Tx/Rx processing can bedone in the central unit, while other processing can be done at thedistributed units. For example, in accordance with one or more aspectsas shown in the diagram, the BS mod/demod 432 may be located in thedistributed units.

On the uplink, at the UE 120, a transmit processor 464 may receive andprocess data (e.g., for the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)) froma data source 462 and control information (e.g., for the Physical UplinkControl Channel (PUCCH) from the controller/processor 480. The transmitprocessor 464 may also generate reference symbols for a referencesignal. The symbols from the transmit processor 464 may be precoded by aTX MIMO processor 466 if applicable, further processed by thedemodulators 454 a through 454 r (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc.), andtransmitted to the base station 110. At the BS 110, the uplink signalsfrom the UE 120 may be received by the antennas 434, processed by themodulators 432, detected by a MIMO detector 436 if applicable, andfurther processed by a receive processor 438 to obtain decoded data andcontrol information sent by the UE 120. The receive processor 438 mayprovide the decoded data to a data sink 439 and the decoded controlinformation to the controller/processor 440.

The controllers/processors 440 and 480 may direct the operation at thebase station 110 and the UE 120, respectively. The processor 440 and/orother processors and modules at the base station 110 may perform ordirect the processes for the techniques described herein. The processor480 and/or other processors and modules at the UE 120 may also performor direct processes for the techniques described herein. The memories442 and 482 may store data and program codes for the BS 110 and the UE120, respectively. A scheduler 444 may schedule UEs 120 for datatransmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

FIG. 5A is a diagram showing an exemplary DL-centric subframe 500A. TheDL-centric subframe 500A may include a control portion 502A, a DL dataportion 504A, and a common UL portion 506A. The control portion 502A mayexist in the initial or beginning portion of the DL-centric subframe500A. The control portion 502A may include various schedulinginformation and/or control information corresponding to various portionsof the DL-centric subframe 500A. In some configurations, the controlportion 502A may be a PDCCH, as indicated by the legend shown in FIG.5A.

The DL data portion 504A may sometimes be referred to as the payload ofthe DL-centric subframe 500A. The DL data portion 504A may include thecommunication resources utilized to communicate DL data from thescheduling entity such as the ANC 202 of FIG. 2 (e.g., eNB, BS, Node B,5G NB, TRP, gNB, etc.) to the subordinate entity, e.g., UE 120. In someconfigurations, the DL data portion 504A may be a PDSCH.

The DL-centric subframe 500A may also include a common UL portion 506A.The common UL portion 506A may sometimes be referred to as an UL burst,a common UL burst, and/or various other suitable terms. The common ULportion 506A may include feedback information corresponding to variousother portions of the DL-centric subframe 500A. For example, the commonUL portion 506A may include feedback information corresponding to thecontrol portion 502A. Non-limiting examples of feedback information mayinclude an acknowledge (ACK) signal, a negative acknowledge (NACK)signal, a HARQ indicator, and/or various other suitable types ofinformation. The common UL portion 506A may include additional oralternative information, such as information pertaining to random accesschannel (RACH) procedures, scheduling requests (SRs), sounding referencesignals (SRS), and various other suitable types of information.

As illustrated in FIG. 5A, the end of the DL data portion 504A may beseparated in time from the beginning of the common UL portion 506A. Thistime separation may sometimes be referred to as a gap, a guard period, aguard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. This separation mayprovide time for the switchover from DL communication (e.g., receptionoperation by the subordinate entity, such as UE 120) to UL communication(e.g., transmission by the subordinate entity, such as UE 120). One ofordinary skill in the art will understand, however, that the foregoingis merely one example of a DL-centric subframe 500A and alternativestructures having similar features may exist without necessarilydeviating from the aspects described herein.

FIG. 5B is a diagram showing an exemplary UL-centric subframe 500B. TheUL-centric subframe 500B may include a control portion 502B, a UL dataportion 504B, and a common UL portion 506B. The control portion 502B mayexist in the initial or beginning portion of the UL-centric subframe500B. The control portion 502B in FIG. 5B may be similar to the controlportion 502A described above with reference to FIG. 5A. The UL dataportion 504B may sometimes be referred to as the payload of theUL-centric subframe. The UL data portion 504B may refer to thecommunication resources utilized to communicate UL data from thesubordinate entity, e.g., UE 120, to the scheduling entity (e.g., a BS110 or ANC 202). In some configurations, the control portion 502B may bea PUSCH.

As illustrated in FIG. 5B, the end of the control portion 502B may beseparated in time from the beginning of the UL data portion 504B. Thistime separation may sometimes be referred to as a gap, guard period,guard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. This separation mayprovide time for the switchover from DL communication (e.g., receptionoperation by the scheduling entity 202) to UL communication (e.g.,transmission by the scheduling entity 202).

The common UL portion 506B in FIG. 5B may be similar to the common ULportion 506A described above with reference to FIG. 5A. The common ULportion 506B may additionally or alternatively include informationpertaining to channel quality indicator (CQI), SRSs, and various othersuitable types of information. One of ordinary skill in the art willunderstand that the foregoing is merely one example of an UL-centricsubframe 500B and alternative structures having similar features mayexist without necessarily deviating from the aspects described herein.

In summary, a UL-centric subframe 500B may be used for transmitting ULdata from one or more mobile stations 120 to a base station 110, and aDL-centric subframe 500A may be used for transmitting DL data from thebase station 110 to the one or more mobile stations 120. In one example,a frame may include both DL-centric subframes 500A and UL-centricsubframes 500B. In such an example, the ratio of UL-centric subframes toDL-centric subframes in a frame may be dynamically adjusted based on theamount of uplink data and the amount of downlink data that needs to betransmitted. For example, if there is more uplink data than downlinkdata, then the ratio of UL-centric subframes to DL-centric subframes maybe increased. Conversely, if there is more downlink data than uplinkdata, then the ratio of UL-centric subframes to DL-centric subframes maybe decreased.

A flexible timeline is being introduced in NR where the UE indicatesdelays in terms of slots, K0/K1/K2, in the timeline. The delays,K0/K1/K2, can be conveyed in downlink control information (DCI).Techniques described herein may include the UE 120 indicating the DLfeedback timing for UL transmissions (e.g., autonomous uplink (AUL)transmissions) or indicating the DL scheduling timing for ULtransmissions. The indication can be conveyed in the uplink controlinformation (UCI) in the PUCCH or in a scheduling request (SR).

The PUCCH carries the UCI. In some aspects, the UCI carries at least oneof CQI, an SR, or HARQ ACK/NACK. DCI such as scheduling decisions andpower-control commands is used to signal allocation of resources to theUE 120. For example, DCI may be used to schedule downlink resources onthe PDSCH or uplink resources on the PUSCH. In addition, Transmit PowerControl (TPC) commands may be signaled by the DCI for either the PUCCHor the PUSCH. The PDCCH is used to carry DCI.

AUL transmission was introduced in MulteFire, further enhanced licensedassisted (FeLAA), and NR. LAA was defined solely for the downlink in3GPP Rel-13. Enhanced-Licensed Assisted Access (eLAA) was added in 3GPPRel-14 and included uplink operation for LAA. In some cases, uplinktransmissions in unlicensed spectrum (e.g., in LTE-U or LAA) may bescheduled by a BS 110. An uplink grant may indicate scheduled resourcesto be used by a UE 120 for uplink transmission.

One goal of the present method and apparatus is to improve channelutilization by reducing uplink transmission delay (or latency) for a UE120 in the unlicensed spectrum by not having to rely on a BS 110 to haveaccess to the wireless medium in order to assign a grant to the UE 120.In one aspect, the BS 110 does not have to assign one or more uplinkgrants before one or more UEs 120 can use that wireless medium foruplink transmissions. The UE 120 can transmit on an AUL without havingreceived an uplink grant.

Typically, if a UE 120 is not scheduled with an uplink grant for awhile, the UE 120 will submit a scheduling request in order to getscheduled in uplink when new data arrives. Using AULs may reduce uplinktransmission delay (or latency) because the UE will not have to send anSR before sending data, reports, or control signals on the uplink. A UE120 uses an SR to request resource allocation in the uplink so the UE120 can send data.

A UE 120 operating in unlicensed spectrum may determine that a BS 110 isnot transmitting during a particular time period (e.g., by detecting theabsence of a control signal or a preamble). Meanwhile, the UE 120 mayalso perform an LBT procedure and, if the channel is available, mayperform an AUL transmission. The AUL transmission may include controlinformation to facilitate decoding at a BS 110. Thus, the BS 110 mayreceive the control information, and decode the rest of the AULtransmission accordingly. The BS 110 may configure the UE for AULtransmissions when the radio link is established, and may also senddynamic configuration information to initiate, suspend, or reconfigureparameters for AUL transmissions. This is shown in FIG. 6 whichillustrates a method for AUL transmission in unlicensed spectrum.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method 600 for autonomous UL transmission in anunlicensed spectrum, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure. The operations of method 600 may be implemented by a devicesuch as a UE 120 or its components as described with reference toFIG. 1. For example, the operations of method 600 may be performed by anAUL manager as described herein. In some aspects, the UE 120 may executea set of codes to control the functional elements of the device toperform the functions described below.

At block 610, the UE 120 may detect an absence of a control transmissionfrom a base station on a CC in an unlicensed spectrum band at apredefined time.

At block 620, the UE 120 may perform an LBT procedure based on thedetected absence of the control transmission. In certain aspects, theoperations of block 620 may be performed by an LBT component. At block630, the UE 120 may transmit an unscheduled UL message on the CC basedon the LBT procedure.

UEs 120 or base stations 110 operating in shared or unlicensed frequencyspectrum may perform an LBT procedure such as a CCA prior tocommunicating in order to determine whether the channel is available. ACCA may include an energy detection procedure to determine whether thereare any other active transmissions. For example, the device may inferthat a change in a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of a powermeter indicates that a channel is occupied. Specifically, signal powerthat is concentrated in a certain bandwidth and exceeds a predeterminednoise floor may indicate another wireless transmitter is actively usingthe CC. A CCA may also include detection of specific sequences thatindicate use of the channel. For example, another device may transmit aspecific preamble prior to transmitting a data sequence.

For AUL transmission, the downlink feedback (which indicates if the AULtransmission was received) could be conveyed either in DCI or autonomousUL-DL feedback information (AUL-DFI). AUL-DFI was introduced inFeLAA/MulteFire to send DL feedback in response to an AUL transmission.In FeLAA/MulteFire, it is assumed that the AUL-DFI has a bitmap whichmaps a bit to each HARQ processes allocated to the AUL. It is assumedthat each DL feedback is going to have a position for each HARQ whichrepresents an ACK or a NACK. A bit map is a mapping from some domain(almost always a range of integers) to values in the set {0, 1}. Here,in one example, the values can be interpreted as ACK/NACK where ACK is“1” and NACK is “0.” Also, the default ACK/NACK value may be NACK. A newdata indicator (NDI) in the DCI can also be used to provide feedback. Ifthe new data indicator toggles, it means the previous transmission wasreceived correctly and the next transmission is new data.

HARQ may be a method of ensuring that data is received correctly over awireless communication link. HARQ may include a combination of errordetection (e.g., using a CRC), forward error correction (FEC), andretransmission (e.g., automatic repeat request (ARQ)). HARQ may improvethroughput at the MAC layer in poor radio conditions (e.g.,signal-to-noise conditions). In Incremental Redundancy HARQ, incorrectlyreceived data may be stored in a buffer and combined with subsequenttransmissions to improve the overall likelihood of successfully decodingthe data. In some cases, redundancy bits are added to each message priorto transmission. This may be useful in poor conditions. In other cases,redundancy bits are not added to each transmission, but areretransmitted after the transmitter of the original message receives aNACK indicating a failed attempt to decode the information. The chain oftransmission, response and retransmission may be referred to as a HARQprocess. In some cases, a limited number of HARQ processes may be usedfor a given communication link. In some cases, UL control messagesincluding HARQ information may be transmitted autonomously by a UE 120.HARQ process may also be configured in autonomous (e.g., unscheduled) ULtransmissions. When a UE 120 transmits autonomous UL messages, thetransmissions may include UCI that contain parameters similar to thoseincluded in DCI because the receiving base station 110 may use the UCIto facilitate decoding of the message.

In some aspects, a base station 110 may configure a UE 120 withparameters for autonomous UL transmission. In some aspects, an RRCmessage may contain indications and parameter configuration information.Further, parameters may include a maximum number of subframes that maybe transmitted autonomously, in addition to an identification ofsubframes on which a UE may contend for autonomous UL transmissions(e.g., even subframes, odd subframes, once every N slots, etc.).

Presently in LTE, the UE interprets the AUL-DFI based on a 4 msprocessing timeline. That is, it will be assumed that there may be adelay (e.g., a minimum 4 ms gap) between the UL grant and the ULtransmission. That is, all the outstanding HARQ processes less than 4 mswill be deemed pending and will be populated in the next AUL-DFI insteadof being treated as NACKs. Without DFI, the BS 110 can always send a newtransmission DCI or a retransmission DCI which implicitly conveys theACK/NACK information.

Flexible timelines were introduced in NR. Instead of using a fixed 4 msprocessing time, a UE 120 is allowed to have different timelinesdepending on the UE category. In one example, the BS 110 indicates thetimeline in a DCI sent to the UE.

The present method and apparatus focuses on the UE indicated timelinefor AUL transmissions. The UE 120 indicates the timeline for AULtransmissions to the BS 110.

FIG. 7 discloses timing relation definitions 700 for HARQ operations inNR where K0 to K2 represents delays measured in slots. K0 is the delayin slots between a downlink grant and a corresponding downlink data(e.g., PDSCH) reception. After the downlink grant, the downlink data istransmitted. K1 is the delay in slots between downlink data (e.g.,PDSCH) reception and a corresponding ACK transmission on the uplink. Inone example, the transmitted PDSCH is in the same slot as the ACK. K2 isthe delay in slots between an uplink grant reception in the downlink andan uplink data (e.g., PUSCH) transmission.

K0, K1, and K2 can be indicated to a UE dynamically by L1 DL signaling.K0, K1, and K2 can be indicated to a UE by the DCI in the PDCCH. In NR,the HARQ timeline is indicated by gNB based on UE capability where theUE 120 signals its downlink processing time based on the UE category andthe BS 110 indicates a corresponding timing relation accordingly.

In one example, there is no fixed timing relationship between uplinktransmission and downlink signaling. The UE 120 is not aware when the BS110 sends a DFI or DCI in response to receiving an AUL transmission(e.g., PUSCH) to indicate to the UE whether the PUSCH was correctlyreceived or not. After the UE 120 sends an AUL PUSCH, the UE 120 willkeep monitoring the PDCCH for either the DCI or the DFI until the timerexpires to know whether it should retransmit the previous packet orstart a new packet on the AUL resources. The timer has to be set atleast no less than the BS 110 UL processing time. Additional margin canbe included in the timer to allow BS transmission or schedulingflexibility as well as the medium access uncertainty. In one example,the timer will be configured by the BS 110. If the UE 120 receivesfeedback before timer expires, the UE 120 can stop monitoring even ifthere is remaining time in the timer.

In order to reduce power consumption by the UE 120, when the UE 120 isnot sending delay sensitive traffic on the AUL, the UE 120 may not wantto keep monitoring the DL DCI or DL DFI after it transmits PUSCH. Notethat this concept is equally applicable for the UE 120 in the DRX modein addition to the UE 120 during AUL transmission. With discontinuoustransmission, communication to a receiver over a channel does not occurcontinuously but may be cycled on and off. In the DRX mode, the UE 120may save power by not monitoring the PDCCH in a given subframe.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart which illustrates a method 800 of a UE 120 forsending AUL traffic during a UE indicated timeline, in accordance withcertain aspects of the present disclosure. In step 810, the BS 110indicates the minimum PUSCH processing timeline to the UE 120 in an RRCmessage, or during AUL activation. In another example, the minimum PUSCHprocessing time can be predefined. In yet another example, the minimumPUSCH processing time is not either predefined or indicated to UE. Inthis case, the minimum processing timeline could be considered to be assmall as zero. At optional block 820, the BS 110 may further configureDFI or DCI monitoring opportunities for the UE 120, where the UE 120receives feedback monitoring opportunity configurations which indicatewhen DFI or DCI feedback will be sent after the BS 110 has processed theAUL transmission. The allowed timeline configurations can be indicatedby the BS 110 in an RRC message or in the AUL activation command wherethe activation command can be carried in the DFI or DCI.

Block 820 illustrates an example where the UE receives a feedbackmonitoring opportunity configuration, and selects a timeline for whenfeedback like a DCI or a DFI is sent. For example, the feedbackmonitoring opportunity configuration may include the following: i) theUE keeps monitoring for DCI or DFI after it transmits a transmissionassociated with a UL HARQ process; ii) the UE obtains an ACK/NACK forall AUL PUSCH HARQ processes together, e.g., after all HARQ processeshave been processed. For this timeline, the UE monitors for one feedbackresponse for all the HARQ processes, and thus may not monitor DCI or DFIfor individual HARQ processes; or iii) the UE wakes up on the next DRXON duration to monitor the feedback (e.g., the DCI or the DFI).

The BS 110 may configure an additional grid for UE 120 to monitor forDCI or DFI corresponding to an AUL transmission. The DCI/DFI monitoringgrid can be denser than the DRX cycle. For example, BS 110 may configureUE 120 to wake up every half DRX cycle to monitor DFI/DCI. The UE 120monitors the additional grid for feedback such as DCI or DFI when itsends data (such as a PUSCH) during an AUL transmission. This could bemore useful for connected DRX mode.

In block 830, the UE indicates the preferred AUL processing timeline inthe allowed set of processing timelines (e.g., in the feedbackmonitoring opportunity configuration). The allowed set could include:monitor DL DCI/DFI after each UL transmission; monitor DL DCI/DFI afterall HARQ processes are done; monitor DL DCI/DFI in the next DRX ONduration; monitor DL DCI/DFI in the next configured period, etc.Effectively, the UE 120 indicates to the BS 110 when to send feedbacksuch as DFI for AUL downlink feedback or when to send a DCI forsubsequent new transmission or retransmission where the DCI is used tosignal allocation of resources to the UE 120.

The timeline selected by the UE 120 may depend on the UE'simplementation. For example, if the traffic is delay sensitive, the UEmay pick the first choice: the UE keeps monitoring DCI or DFI after ittransmits a UL packet. That is, for delay sensitive traffic, the UE 120may select a timeline in which the BS 110 can send feedback to the UE120 right away. On the other hand, if the traffic is not delaysensitive, the UE can pick the third choice: the UE wakes up on the nextDRX ON duration to monitor for DCI or DFI. Here, the BS 110 will sendfeedback to the UE on the next DRX ON cycle. In this case, the UE 120doesn't need feedback right away because the data is not delaysensitive. In some cases, the UE 120 may select obtaining ACK/NACK forall AUL PUSCH HARQ processes together when traffic is between delaysensitive and not delay sensitive.

Note that UCI in FeLAA/MF may support fields for the UE to convey HARQid, NDI and redundancy version (RV). In the present method andapparatus, a timeline field may also be included in the UCI.

In another example, the UCI may also include some form of SR in orderfor the BS 110 to schedule subsequent transmissions.

Additionally or alternatively, the indication from the UE 120 to the BS110 when to send DFI for AUL downlink feedback or when to send a DCI fora subsequent new transmission or retransmission may be associated withan UL buffer status and/or an UL traffic Quality of Service (QoS).

The indication from the UE 120 to the BS 110 when to send DFI for AULdownlink feedback or when to send a DCI for a subsequent newtransmission or retransmission can also be combined with a SR indicationin the UCI. In another example, the SR could include an additionaltimeline field to carry the indication for the selected timeline for thesubsequent UL grant when the UCI is not present (for example, with ascheduled UL transmission).

In block 840, based on the selected timeline (e.g., in the UCI or theSR), the UE monitors for the DL feedback (e.g., DFI or DCI) accordingly.

The proposal may be complementary to a BS 110 indicating K₀, K₁ and K₂in a PDCCH. Here the UE 120 indicates the timeline when it expects tomonitor DFI or DCI which contains an ACK/NACK and/or schedulinginformation from the BS 110. The PUSCH is received by the BS 110 andDFI/DCI feedback is sent according to the AUL-DFI/DCI transmissiontimeline signaled in the UCI from the UE 120. The proposal can work forboth AUL or scheduled UL (SUL) where the timing indication can besignaled either in the UCI or in the scheduling request.

FIG. 9 illustrates three exemplary AUL timelines 900 that may beselected by a UE 120, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure. The UE 120 indicates the selected AUL timeline along withits AUL transmission times to the BS 110 and the BS 110 transmitsDFI/DCI accordingly.

In FIG. 9, for each AUL timeline 900 there are four HARQ processes, H0to H3. Each HARQ process has corresponding HARQ feedback, where Arepresents ACK and N represents NACK. For AUL timeline 900A, the BS 110transmits AUL-DFI/DCI feedback 910 a for the four H0/H1/H2/H3 HARQprocesses 905 a at the next DRX ON duration 925. After the transmissionis done, the UE goes to sleep. During DRX OFF period 915, the UE 120 mayremain in sleep and does not monitor the DFI/DCI feedback. The UE 120wakes up to monitor for the feedback during the next DRX “ON” duration925.

For AUL timeline 900B, the BS 110 transmits AUL-DFI/DCI feedback 910 bfor the four H0/H1/H2/H3 HARQ processes 905 b. The UE 120 monitors forthe AUL-DFI/DCI feedback 910 b after the minimum processing time 930 forits last AUL transmission. When the minimum processing time is notavailable to UE 120 (e.g., has not been configured), UE 120 may monitorthe DFI/DCI feedback after its last AUL transmission. In this case, theUE will not monitor the feedback from the BS 110 until all HARQprocesses are completed. Thus, the traffic being monitored by the UE onthis timeline may be less time sensitive. For AUL timeline 900B, UE 120may monitor the DFI/DCI after the minimum processing time for its lastAUL transmission when a minimum processing time is available, otherwise,it may monitor the DFI/DCI after its last AUL transmission.

For AUL timeline 900C the BS 110 transmits AUL-DFI/DCI feedback 910 cfor the four H0/H1/H2/H3 HARQ processes 905 c. The UE 120 may monitorfor the AUL-DFI/DCI feedback 910 c after a minimum processing time 935for its first AUL transmission. When the minimum processing time is notavailable to UE, UE may monitor for the DFI/DCI feedback after its firstAUL transmission. This timeline is directed at handling more timesensitive traffic where the UE 120 monitors the feedback as quickly asit can.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method 1000 supporting timeline selectionfor feedback monitoring opportunities, in accordance with certainaspects of the present disclosure. Method 1000 may begin at block 1010,where a UE 120 may transmit one or more AUL transmissions (e.g., withina burst associated with one or more HARQ processes). In the next step,step 1020, the UE determines what type of traffic is associated with thefeedback for which it will monitor, traffic that is delay sensitive ornot delay sensitive. If the traffic is delay sensitive, then in step1030, the UE 120 continues monitoring DCI or DFI after the minimumprocessing time of the first HARQ process. When the minimum processingtime is not available to UE 120, UE 120 will monitor the DFI/DCI afterthe first HARQ process of the one or more AUL transmissions. Thistimeline is directed at handling time sensitive traffic where the BS 110sends the feedback as quickly as it can.

If the traffic is not delay sensitive, then the UE 120 will not monitorthe feedback from the BS 110 until all HARQ processes are completed andobtains an ACK/NACK for all AUL PUSCH HARQ processes together. That is,after all HARQ processes have been processed, the UE 120 monitors forone feedback response for all the HARQ processes at block 1040. In somecases, it monitors for the DFI/DCI after the minimum processing time forits last AUL transmission. Alternatively, in step 1050, the UE 120determines if DRX is “ON.” If the answer is no, e.g., DRX is “OFF,” thenthe UE 120 does not monitor the DFI/DCI feedback. If the answer is yes,e.g., DRX is “ON,” the DFI/DCI traffic may be monitored. In someexamples, the method 1000 may include the UE selecting the timeline formonitoring for feedback from a set of timelines (e.g., in a feedbackmonitoring opportunity configuration).

FIG. 11 illustrates certain components that may be included within abase station 1101 supporting timeline selection for feedback monitoringopportunities, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure. The base station 1101 may be an access point, a NodeB, anevolved NodeB, etc. The base station 1101 includes a processor 1103. Theprocessor 1103 may be a general purpose single- or multi-chipmicroprocessor (e.g., a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) orcomplex instruction set computing (CISC)), a special purposemicroprocessor (e.g., a digital signal processor (DSP)), amicrocontroller, a programmable gate array, etc. The processor 1103 maybe referred to as a central processing unit (CPU). Although just asingle processor 1103 is shown in the base station 1101 of FIG. 11, inan alternative configuration, a combination of processors (e.g., a CPUand DSP) could be used.

The base station 1101 also includes memory 1105. The memory 1105 may beany electronic component capable of storing electronic information. Thememory 1105 may be embodied as random-access memory (RAM), read onlymemory (ROM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flashmemory devices in RAM, on-board memory included with the processor,erasable programmable ROM (EPROM) memory, electrically erasableprogrammable ROM (EEPROM) memory, registers, and so forth, includingcombinations thereof.

Data 1107 and instructions 1109 may be stored in the memory 1105. Theinstructions 1109 may be executable by the processor 1103 to implementthe methods disclosed herein. Executing the instructions 1109 mayinvolve the use of the data 1107 that is stored in the memory 1105. Whenthe processor 1103 executes the instructions 1109, various portions ofthe instructions 1109 a may be loaded onto the processor 1103, andvarious pieces of data 1107 a may be loaded onto the processor 1103.

The base station 1101 may also include a transmitter 1111 and a receiver1113 to allow transmission and reception of signals to and from the basestation 1101. The transmitter 1111 and receiver 1113 may be collectivelyreferred to as a transceiver 1115. Multiple antennas 1117 a-b may beelectrically coupled to the transceiver 1115. The base station 1101 mayalso include (not shown) multiple transmitters, multiple receiversand/or multiple transceivers.

The various components of the base station 1101 may be coupled togetherby one or more buses, which may include a power bus, a control signalbus, a status signal bus, a data bus, etc. For the sake of clarity, thevarious buses are illustrated in FIG. 11 as a bus system 1119. AlthoughFIGS. 8 and 10 was discussed with reference to a UE, it should beunderstood that a base station, such as base station 1101, may performthe corresponding transmitting that is received and monitored by the UEas well as the receiving of the information indicated by the UEdiscussed in FIGS. 8 and 10. And may be implemented in hardware,software executed by a processor like the processor 1103 described inFIG. 11.

FIG. 12 illustrates certain components that may be included within awireless communication device 1201 supporting timeline selection forfeedback monitoring opportunities, in accordance with certain aspects ofthe present disclosure. The wireless communication device 1201 may be anaccess terminal, a mobile station, a UE, etc. The wireless communicationdevice 1201 includes a processor 1203. The processor 1203 may be ageneral-purpose single- or multi-chip microprocessor (e.g., RISC orCISC), a special purpose microprocessor (e.g., a DSP), amicrocontroller, a programmable gate array, etc. The processor 1203 maybe referred to as a CPU. Although just a single processor 1203 is shownin the wireless communication device 1201 of FIG. 12, in an alternativeconfiguration, a combination of processors (e.g., a CPU and DSP) couldbe used.

The wireless communication device 1201 also includes memory 1205. Thememory 1205 may be any electronic component capable of storingelectronic information. The memory 1205 may be embodied as RAM, ROM,magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devicesin RAM, on-board memory included with the processor, EPROM memory,EEPROM memory, registers, and so forth, including combinations thereof.

Data 1207 and instructions 1209 may be stored in the memory 1205. Theinstructions 1209 may be executable by the processor 1203 to implementthe methods disclosed herein. Executing the instructions 1209 mayinvolve the use of the data 1207 that is stored in the memory 1205. Whenthe processor 1203 executes the instructions 1209, various portions ofthe instructions 1209 a may be loaded onto the processor 1203, andvarious pieces of data 1207 a may be loaded onto the processor 1203.

The wireless communication device 1201 may also include a transmitter1211 and a receiver 1213 to allow transmission and reception of signalsto and from the wireless communication device 1201. The transmitter 1211and receiver 1213 may be collectively referred to as a transceiver 1215.Multiple antennas 1217 a, 1217 b may be electrically coupled to thetransceiver 1215. The wireless communication device 1201 may alsoinclude (not shown) multiple transmitters, multiple receivers and/ormultiple transceivers.

The various components of the wireless communication device 1201 may becoupled together by one or more buses, which may include a power bus, acontrol signal bus, a status signal bus, a data bus, etc. For the sakeof clarity, the various buses are illustrated in FIG. 12 as a bus system1219. It should be noted that these methods describe possibleimplementation, and that the operations and the steps may be rearrangedor otherwise modified such that other implementations are possible. Insome examples, aspects from two or more of the methods may be combined.For example, aspects of each of the methods may include steps or aspectsof the other methods, or other steps or techniques described herein.Thus, aspects of the disclosure may provide for receiving on transmitand transmitting on receive. The functions described herein in theflowcharts of FIGS. 8 & 10 may be implemented in hardware, softwareexecuted by a processor like the processor 1203 described in FIG. 12.

The description herein is provided to enable a person skilled in the artto make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosurewill be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the genericprinciples defined herein may be applied to other variations withoutdeparting from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is notto be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to beaccorded the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein.

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, softwareexecuted by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. Ifimplemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may bestored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are withinthe scope of the disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to thenature of software, functions described above can be implemented usingsoftware executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, orcombinations of any of these. Features implementing functions may alsobe physically located at various positions, including being distributedsuch that portions of functions are implemented at different physicallocations. Also, as used herein, including in the claims, “or” as usedin a list of items (for example, a list of items prefaced by a phrasesuch as “at least one of” or “one or more”) indicates an inclusive listsuch that, for example, a list of at least one of A, B, or C means A orB or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C).

Computer-readable media includes both non-transitory computer storagemedia and communication media including any medium that facilitatestransfer of a computer program from one place to another. Anon-transitory storage medium may be any available medium that can beaccessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way ofexample, and not limitation, non-transitory computer-readable media caninclude RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable read only memory(EEPROM), compact disk (CD) ROM or other optical disk storage, magneticdisk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othernon-transitory medium that can be used to carry or store desired programcode means in the form of instructions or data structures and that canbe accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or ageneral-purpose or special-purpose processor. Also, any connection isproperly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the softwareis transmitted from a web site, server, or other remote source using acoaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line(DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave,then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, orwireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave areincluded in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein,include CD, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD),floppy disk and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce datamagnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above are also included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

Techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunications systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, single carrierfrequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), and other systems. Theterms “system” and “network” are often used interchangeably. A CDMAsystem may implement a radio technology such as CDMA2000, UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), etc. CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95,and IS-856 standards. IS-2000 Releases 0 and A are commonly referred toas CDMA2000 1×, 1×, etc. IS-856 (TIA-856) is commonly referred to asCDMA2000 1×EV-DO, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), etc. UTRA includesWideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. A TDMA system mayimplement a radio technology such as (Global System for Mobilecommunications (GSM)). An OFDMA system may implement a radio technologysuch as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (wireless fidelity(Wi-Fi)), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM, etc. UTRA andE-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunications system (UniversalMobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)). 3GPP LTE and LTE-advanced(LTE-A) are new releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS,LTE, LTE-a, and GSM are described in documents from an organizationnamed “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB aredescribed in documents from an organization named “3rd GenerationPartnership Project 2” (3GPP2). The techniques described herein may beused for the systems and radio technologies mentioned above as well asother systems and radio technologies. The description herein, however,describes an LTE system for purposes of example, and LTE terminology isused in much of the description above, although the techniques areapplicable beyond LTE applications.

In LTE/LTE-A networks, including networks described herein, the termevolved node B (eNB) may be generally used to describe the basestations. The wireless communications system or systems described hereinmay include a heterogeneous LTE/LTE-A network in which different typesof eNBs provide coverage for various geographical regions. For example,each eNB or base station may provide communication coverage for a macrocell, a small cell, or other types of cell. The term “cell” is a 3GPPterm that can be used to describe a base station, a carrier or componentcarrier (CC) associated with a base station, or a coverage area (e.g.,sector, etc.) of a carrier or base station, depending on context.

Base stations may include or may be referred to by those skilled in theart as a base transceiver station, a radio base station, an AP, a radiotransceiver, a NodeB, eNodeB (eNB), Home NodeB, a Home eNodeB, or someother suitable terminology. The geographic coverage area for a basestation may be divided into sectors making up a portion of the coveragearea. The wireless communications system or systems described herein mayinclude base stations of different types (e.g., macro or small cell basestations). The UEs described herein may be able to communicate withvarious types of base stations and network equipment including macroeNBs, small cell eNBs, relay base stations, and the like. There may beoverlapping geographic coverage areas for different technologies. Insome cases, different coverage areas may be associated with differentcommunication technologies. In some cases, the coverage area for onecommunication technology may overlap with the coverage area associatedwith another technology. Different technologies may be associated withthe same base station, or with different base stations.

The wireless communications system or systems described herein maysupport synchronous or asynchronous operation. For synchronousoperation, the base stations may have similar frame timing, andtransmissions from different base stations may be approximately alignedin time. For asynchronous operation, the base stations may havedifferent frame timing, and transmissions from different base stationsmay not be aligned in time. The techniques described herein may be usedfor either synchronous or asynchronous operations.

The DL transmissions described herein may also be called forward linktransmissions while the UL transmissions may also be called reverse linktransmissions. Each communication link described herein including, forexample, wireless communication system 100 of FIG. 1 may include one ormore carriers, where each carrier may be a signal made up of multiplesub-carriers (e.g., waveform signals of different frequencies). Eachmodulated signal may be sent on a different sub-carrier and may carrycontrol information (e.g., reference signals, control channels, etc.),overhead information, user data, etc. The communication links describedherein may transmit bidirectional communications using frequencydivision duplex (FDD) (e.g., using paired spectrum resources) or timedivision duplex (TDD) operation (e.g., using unpaired spectrumresources). Frame structures may be defined for FDD (e.g., framestructure type 1) and TDD (e.g., frame structure type 2).

Thus, aspects of the disclosure may provide for receiving on transmitand transmitting on receive. It should be noted that these methodsdescribe possible implementations, and that the operations and the stepsmay be rearranged or otherwise modified such that other implementationsare possible. In some examples, aspects from two or more of the methodsmay be combined.

The various illustrative blocks and modules described in connection withthe disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with ageneral-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, afield programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration). Thus, the functions described herein may be performed byone or more other processing units (or cores), on at least oneintegrated circuit (IC). In various examples, different types of ICs maybe used (e.g., Structured/Platform ASICs, an FPGA, or anothersemi-custom IC), which may be programmed in any manner known in the art.The functions of each unit may also be implemented, in whole or in part,with instructions embodied in a memory, formatted to be executed by oneor more general or application-specific processors.

In the appended figures, similar components or features may have thesame reference label. Further, various components of the same type maybe distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a secondlabel that distinguishes among the similar components. If just the firstreference label is used in the specification, the description isapplicable to any one of the similar components having the same firstreference label irrespective of the second reference label.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for wireless communications at a userequipment (UE), comprising: receiving, by the UE, a feedback monitoringopportunity configuration that identifies a set of uplink processingtimelines for a base station to process each of a plurality of uplinktransmissions, wherein the set comprises two or more uplink processingtimelines, and wherein each uplink processing timeline of the two ormore uplink processing timelines identifies a different time durationbetween each of the plurality of uplink transmissions in a physicaluplink shared channel (PUSCH) slot and respective feedback from the basestation, wherein the feedback is associated with each of the pluralityof uplink transmissions; transmitting, by the UE, an indication of afirst uplink processing timeline, wherein the first uplink processingtimeline is selected from the set of uplink processing timelines;transmitting, by the UE, an uplink transmission of the plurality ofuplink transmissions to the base station; and monitoring, by the UE, forthe respective feedback from the base station associated with the uplinktransmission based at least in part on the first uplink processingtimeline.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the uplink transmission isan autonomous uplink (AUL) transmission or a scheduled uplink (SUL)transmission.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback monitoringopportunity configuration is received in a Radio Resource Control (RRC)message or in an autonomous uplink (AUL) transmission activationcommand.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the firstuplink processing timeline is transmitted in Uplink Control Information(UCI) or in a scheduling request.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving the feedback in downlink feedback information(DFI) or downlink control information (DCI) based at least in part onthe monitoring.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring for therespective feedback further comprises: monitoring, by the UE, for therespective feedback during a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) ON cycle. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring for the respective feedbackfurther comprises: monitoring, by the UE, for the respective feedbackafter a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process of theuplink transmission.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring forthe respective feedback further comprises: monitoring, by the UE, forthe respective feedback after a last hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) process of the uplink transmission.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the set of uplink processing timelines comprises: waking up, bythe UE, at a next Discontinuous Reception (DRX) ON duration to monitorfor the respective feedback; waking up, by the UE, at a configuredperiod to monitor for the respective feedback; monitoring, by the UE,for the respective feedback after a processing time of a first hybridautomatic repeat request (HARQ) process is complete; or monitoring, bythe UE, for autonomous uplink (AUL) downlink feedback information (DFI)that includes at least one ACK/NACK for a plurality of physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) HARQ processes.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein monitoring for the respective feedback further comprises:monitoring, by the UE, for the respective feedback based at least inpart a minimum physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) processingtimeline.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: receiving, bythe UE, the minimum PUSCH processing timeline during an autonomousuplink activation.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein the minimum PUSCHprocessing timeline is predefined.
 13. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising: receiving, by the UE, the minimum PUSCH processing timelinein a radio resource control (RRC) message from the base station.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: selecting, by the UE, the firstuplink processing timeline based at least in part on a delay sensitivityof the uplink transmission.
 15. An apparatus for wireless communicationsat a user equipment (UE), comprising: means for receiving, by the UE, afeedback monitoring opportunity configuration that identifies a set ofuplink processing timelines for a base station to process each of aplurality of uplink transmissions, wherein the set comprises two or moreuplink processing timelines, and wherein each uplink processing timelineof the two or more uplink processing timelines identifies a differenttime duration between each of the plurality of uplink transmissions in aphysical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) slot and respective feedback fromthe base station, wherein the feedback is associated with each of theplurality of uplink transmissions; means for transmitting an indicationof a first uplink processing timeline, wherein the first uplinkprocessing timeline is selected from the set of uplink processingtimelines; means for transmitting an uplink transmission of theplurality of uplink transmissions to the base station; and means formonitoring for the respective feedback from the base station associatedwith the uplink transmission based at least in part on the first uplinkprocessing timeline.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the uplinktransmission is an autonomous uplink (AUL) transmission or a scheduleduplink (SUL) transmission.
 17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein thefeedback monitoring opportunity configuration is received in a RadioResource Control (RRC) message or in an autonomous uplink (AUL)transmission activation command.
 18. The apparatus of claim 15, whereinthe first uplink processing timeline is transmitted in Uplink ControlInformation (UCI) or in a scheduling request.
 19. The apparatus of claim15, further comprising: means for receiving the feedback in downlinkfeedback information (DFI) or downlink control information (DCI) basedat least in part on the monitoring.
 20. The apparatus of claim 15,wherein the means for monitoring for the respective feedback monitorsfor the respective feedback during a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) ONcycle.
 21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the means for monitoringfor the respective feedback monitors for the respective feedback after afirst hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process of the uplinktransmission.
 22. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the means formonitoring for the respective feedback monitors for the respectivefeedback after a last hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process ofthe uplink transmission.
 23. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the setof uplink processing timelines comprises: waking up, by the UE, at anext Discontinuous Reception (DRX) ON duration to monitor for therespective feedback; waking up, by the UE, at a configured period tomonitor for the respective feedback; monitoring, by the UE, for therespective feedback after a processing time of a first hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) process is complete; or monitoring, by the UE, foran autonomous uplink (AUL) downlink feedback information (DFI) thatincludes at least one ACK/NACK for a plurality of physical uplink sharedchannel (PUSCH) HARQ processes.
 24. The apparatus of claim 15, whereinthe means for monitoring for the respective feedback monitors for therespective feedback based at least in part on a minimum physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) processing timeline.
 25. The apparatus of claim24, further comprising: means for receiving, by the UE, the minimumPUSCH processing timeline during an autonomous uplink activation. 26.The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the minimum PUSCH processing timelineis predefined.
 27. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising: meansfor receiving, by the UE, the minimum PUSCH processing timeline in aradio resource control (RRC) message from the base station.
 28. Theapparatus of claim 15, further comprising: means for selecting, by theUE, the first uplink processing timeline based at least in part on adelay sensitivity of the uplink transmission.
 29. An apparatus forwireless communications, comprising: a memory; and at least oneprocessor coupled to the memory, configured to: receive a feedbackmonitoring opportunity configuration that identifies a set of uplinkprocessing timelines for a base station to process each of a pluralityof uplink transmissions, wherein the set comprises two or more uplinkprocessing timelines and wherein each uplink processing timeline of thetwo or more uplink processing timelines identifies a different timeduration between each of the plurality of uplink transmissions in aphysical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) slot and respective feedback fromthe base station, wherein the feedback is associated with each of theplurality of uplink transmissions; transmit an indication of a firstuplink processing timeline, wherein the first uplink processing timelineis selected from the set of uplink processing timelines; transmit anuplink transmission of the plurality of uplink transmissions to the basestation; and monitor for the respective feedback from the base stationassociated with the uplink transmission based at least in part on thefirst uplink processing timeline.
 30. The apparatus of claim 29, whereinthe uplink transmission is an autonomous uplink (AUL) transmission or ascheduled uplink (SUL) transmission.
 31. The apparatus of claim 29,wherein the feedback monitoring opportunity configuration is received ina Radio Resource Control (RRC) message or in an autonomous uplink (AUL)transmission activation command.
 32. The apparatus of claim 31, whereinthe at least one processor is further configured to: select the firstuplink processing timeline based at least in part on a delay sensitivityof the uplink transmission.
 33. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein theat least one processor is further configured to: transmit the indicationof the first uplink processing timeline in Uplink Control Information(UCI) or in a scheduling request.
 34. The apparatus of claim 29, whereinthe at least one processor is further configured to: receive thefeedback in downlink feedback information (DFI) or downlink controlinformation (DCI) based at least in part on the monitoring.
 35. Theapparatus of claim 29, wherein the at least one processor is furtherconfigured to: monitor for the respective feedback during aDiscontinuous Reception (DRX) ON cycle.
 36. The apparatus of claim 29,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: monitor forthe respective feedback after a first hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) process of the uplink transmission.
 37. The apparatus of claim29, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: monitorfor the respective feedback after a last hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) process of the uplink transmission.
 38. The apparatus of claim29, wherein the set of uplink processing timelines comprises: wake up ata next Discontinuous Reception (DRX) ON duration to monitor for therespective feedback; wake up at a configured period to monitor for therespective feedback; monitor for the respective feedback after aprocessing time of a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)process is complete; or monitor for an autonomous uplink (AUL) downlinkfeedback information (DFI) that includes at least one ACK/NACK for aplurality of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ processes. 39.The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the at least one processor is furtherconfigured to: monitor for the respective feedback based at least inpart a minimum physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) processingtimeline.
 40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to: receive the minimum PUSCH processingtimeline during an autonomous uplink activation.
 41. The apparatus ofclaim 39, wherein the minimum PUSCH processing timeline is predefined.42. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the at least one processor isfurther configured to: receive the minimum PUSCH processing timeline ina radio resource control (RRC) message from the base station.
 43. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions storedthereon, the instructions comprising codes executable by an apparatusto: receive a feedback monitoring opportunity configuration thatidentifies a set of uplink processing timelines for a base station toprocess each of a plurality of uplink transmissions, wherein the setcomprises two or more uplink processing timelines, and wherein eachuplink processing timeline of the two or more uplink processingtimelines identifies a different time duration between each of theplurality of uplink transmissions in a physical uplink shared channel(PUSCH) slot and respective feedback from the base station, wherein thefeedback is associated with each of the plurality of uplinktransmissions; transmit an indication of a first uplink processingtimeline, wherein the first uplink processing timeline is selected fromthe set of uplink processing timelines; transmit an uplink transmissionof the plurality of uplink transmissions to the base station; andmonitor for the respective feedback from the base station associatedwith the uplink transmission based at least in part on the first uplinkprocessing timeline.